Politifact ‘Truth-O-Meter’ not applied to Obama Eating Dog

Karl at Hot Air and others recording their objections at Twittercaught Politifact being two-faced in deciding who gets the “Truth-O-Meter” text.

As Karl notes: ”PolitiFact rated the story about the Romneys transporting the family dog on the roof of their car as ‘Mostly True.’ And PolitiFact rated the story about former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee frying squirrels in a popcorn poppersimply ‘True.’” But in tackling the topic of President Obama’s boyhood appetite, even though the item is in the web site’s “Truth-O-Meter” directory (URL — www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/apr/20/context-obama-dog-eating-indonesia/), it kept the Truth-O-Meter in the closet, and only lamely reproduced some of the verbiage from Obama’s Dreams of My Father, introduced by the following narrative (original was in italics; internal links were in original):

In context: Obama’s comments on eating dog in Indonesia

Supporters of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have been sparring about dogs. Obama supporters have noted that Romney drove the family car with his dog Seamus attached to the top in a crate. Romney supporters have been saying lately that Obama has acknowledged eating dog when he was a boy in Indonesia. For today’s installment of our In Context series, we’ll explore what Obama has said.

The account comes from Obama’s autobiography, Dreams from My Father, which includes an account of his interactions with animals shortly after moving to Indonesia. Obama lived there between 1967 and 1971 – when he was 6 to 10 years old — during his mother’s marriage to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian-born student she had met at the University of Hawaii.

Politifact’s Louis Jacobson acts as if it’s only “Romney supporters” who are “saying” that “Obama has acknowledged eating dog when he was a boy” — almost as if no one else could possibly be doing so, and almost as if there’s any legitimate doubt that he did. “In context” (the words in Jacobson’s headline) — What about “I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy)” doesn’t he understand?

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